On the ground
Sleep sound:
I’ll apply
To your eye,
Gentle lover, remedy.
When thou wakest,
Thou takest
True delight
In the sight
Of thy former lady’s eye:
And the country proverb known,
That every man should take his own,
In your waking shall be shown:
Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill;
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.
– William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. Oberon gives Puck a flower to reverse the enchantment on Lysander, which has caused confusion and conflict. When the four star-crossed lovers are asleep, Puck squeezes the juice from the flower into Lysander’s eyes, so that he will awaken to love his former lady Hermia. Meanwhile he leaves Demetrius permanently under the love spell so that he remains in love with Helena. Puck is intent on fixing things and reversing his mischief. He says that he is resetting things to their natural state, where each "Jack" will have his "Jill." There is a touch of gender inequality when Puck uses a bawdy animal metaphor to compare a male lover’s woman to his "mare." This suggests that she is her lover’s property.